elections, leaving a large chunk of your take home pay in 2011 hanging in the balance. we've got a live report from washington on that story just ahead. robert gates weighing in on robert woodward's account over afghan war strategy. the secretary says the new book overplays it. and the a.m. fix blog is up and running this morning. join the live conversation right now at cnn.com/amfix. up first, a shocking discovery not far from the united nations. during the meeting of the general assembly. >> a nicaraguan diplomat was found dead in his bronx apartment. and the search is on for a killer this morning. our susan candiotti joins us with the latest on the investigation. >> and of course the question is, why an attack on this 34-year-old diplomat who had been in the country for about eight years now working at the

nicaraguan mission. cesar mercado. and police found not one but two knives. and they weren't found next to his body. they were found in the bathroom of the small studio apartment where the diplomat lived. cesar mercado, apparently one of the knives were a steak knife according to new york police commissioner paul brown. and he says it was found near the bathroom sink and the sink was filled with blood, unfortunately. and the second knife was a smaller paring knife and that was found inside the sink. so why the positioning of the knives? so many questions to be answered here. his body was found just inside the front door. and when the driver came, the door was unlocked. he opened it up, looked inside, saw the body, and immediately called the police. so they have a lot to try to figure out. his throat, indeed, was cut. and they also said that he was stabbed in the stomach. so there were all of these

things, of course, they have to look into what happened here. but his co-workers at the nicaraguan mission say they cannot come up with any reason themselves why this apparent horrendous murder as they call it happened. and of course they said clearly forensics will tell the story. they're looking into this investigation. that he removed his body. of course it'll be examined by the coroner's office as they try to determine what happened. they also took away his car with the diplomatic plates which was near his apartment building. >> do we have any indication whether or not items were taken from the home? are they looking at it as a robbery? >> it could be a random attack, it could be domestic. but from what i understand, his family was not living with him there. but again, these are all the questions they have to look into. why, why, why? >> susan, thanks. >> you're welcome. well, president obama says it'll take a global village to finally bring peace to the middle east. he addressed the u.n. general

assembly. calling on member nation to come together and support israel and the palestinian with words as well as actions. >> we should draw upon the teachings of tolerance that lie at the heart of three great religions that see jerusalem soil as sacred. we should reach within for what's best for ourselves. when we come here next year, we could have an agreement that would lead to the new member of the united nations. palestine living in peace with israel. >> the president also said that the door to diplomacy remains open for iran. well, iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad cleared the room in a hurry after blaming the 9/11 attacks on the united states government. iranian leader insisting that most of the world agrees with him prompting the the u.s. and

european delegations to leave the hall in protest. and that's not all ahmadinejad had to say in his address to the general assembly. jill dougherty joins us live in the next half hour. she'll tell us about the iranian leader's demands for a united nations investigation into the september 11th attacks. also later this morning at 8:10 eastern, we'll be speaking with sarah shourd, the american hiker just freed after 14 months in an iranian prison. she'll be joining us live here on "american morning." right now your paycheck is being held hostage in the chambers of the u.s. senate. senate democrats deciding not to vote on extending those tax cuts to middle class americans until after the november elections. well, also if nothing gets done by the end of the year, this take home pay of the typical american could shrink by nearly $1,000 in 2011. brianna keilar live from washington this morning. and brianna, so you had said last week that there was a possibility they would punt, you

know, and not tackle this issue until after the elections. but it is shaping up to be a cliff hanger. >> yeah, it is looking -- we've been talking about how this could be delayed. it's official, it's going to be delayed. and democratic leaders say it's because they're getting no support from republicans on this. but what you have here is a split in the democratic party. in the senate that led to this decision that put off dealing with the tax cuts until after the election. most democrats said, yes, let's get behind president obama's plan, we'll keep in place the tax cuts for americans who make $250,000 or less. and then let those tax cuts for those making more money than that expire come the new year. if republicans vote against it, they said we slam them for holding tax cuts for the middle class hostage to tax cuts for the wealthy. but there was a small minority of democrats who went out here. they said this is a bad idea. they said we're fighting for our political lives.

don't give our opponents the ability to say we're raising taxes. that's why we have this delay until after the election. >> maybe some of this took into consideration how it plays after the election depends on what happens when people go to the polls. if the republicans were to gain an awful lot of seats, could they put pressure on democrats to delay any kind of a vote? or could they help shape the debate? how do you think it might play out? >> well, at this point, democrats are insisting no matter what happens, they are going to take this up in that lame duck session some time after the election and before the new congress. the bottom line that people want to know is are there income -- are their taxes going to go up? and right now, no one is saying if you're making $250,000 or less if you're filing jointly that your taxes are going to go up. no one's saying that's the expectation. the big question, the uncertainty has to do with people who are making more money than that. you've got some democrats and republicans pointing to small

businesses that fit into that category and say they're concerned for that, guys. >> brianna, thanks. we'll be watching that one closely. >> we wanted to look at how it would all shake out if congress goes with president obama's plan to extend the tax cuts for the middle class and end them for the top end earners. according to the folks at the tax foundation, the wealthiest residents here in new york city can expect a tax rate of 50.7%. that would be the highest in the nation. right behind them would be hawaii, 49.7%, and then rounding out the top five people in california would pay 49.4%, vermont, 48.8%, and in maryland, 48.6%. so for more on the tax cut vote and full election coverage from the best political team on television, check out our website, cnnpolitics.com. bp's run away oil well spill nearly 185 million gallons of oil into the gulf of mexico. that's the finding of scientists who just published the first

independent peer reviewed paper on the scope of the tragedy. using high-resolution video clips from the deepwater horizon well to measure volume. their findings back official estimates this was the largest marine disaster of its kind ever. 4.4 million barrels of oil. well, this is a flight delay you certainly do not want. a russian capsule that was supposed to bring home three astronauts from the international space station got jammed last night. they were sent back into the station after trying for two hours to get loose. engineers are going over pictures and video trying to figure out what went wrong. they say it may be an electrical short and they're going to try again tonight. >> it's not the sort of thing you want to have happen to you, right? being stuck up in an airplane is bad enough, but being stuck up in space, that's even worse. good morning, rob. >> good morning, guys. we have rain moving into chicago. so if you're traveling through that area, there'll probably be

some delays. and if you live in chicago, that's an issue for your morning rush. there's cooler air behind the front that's moving off to the east. notice that east of the mississippi, pretty much no rain, at least for now. but as the front progresses, we'll see some action later on. but the big story really is for the second full day of fall is that temperatures remain well above average. 90 in atlanta, 94 raleigh, 96 expected in d.c. you've got fog in new york. 85 degrees the expected high temperature. certainly not feeling a whole lot like fall. all right. it's hurricane season. this is hurricane matthew developing. there it is. winds of 50 miles an hour. it is going to be making landfall, honduras, nicaragua. right now it's about 250 miles from that border and scooting up the yucatan peninsula. it's forecast to do some weird things and that includes getting into the gulf of mexico. we'll talk about the details of

that a little bit later on in the program. john and kiran, back up to you. >> all right. right now it just looks like a lot of something moving around. hasn't come together yet. >> not quite, but the folks in central america are going to get wind and rain over the next 48 hours. >> rob, thanks. well, everyone texts and tweets, right? well, i guess you need a day like this then. it's national punctuation day officially. a california writer says that the most common punctuation error is the misplaced or misused apostrophe, it's as in it is and its always gets people. if you're going to punctuate, punctuate responsibly. >> is this national punctuation day? or is it national punctuation day period. >> i don't know. now defense secretary robert gates is answering back. chris lawrence live at the pentagon with the details just

ahead.

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13 1/2 minutes after the hour. defense secretary robert gates offering his assessment to the new book by bob woodward about secret debates over the war in

afghanistan. >> secretary gates is down playing the stories of white house infighting over war strategy saying conflict sells. chris lawrence is live at the pentagon. i mean, a healthy bit of debate, people would think is a good thing. what the concern was is everybody onboard? does everybody within the administration believe afghanistan's winnable? >> yeah, that's right. and he said that. he said there was a healthy debate going on. obviously it was a very, you know, boisterous debate with a lot of disagreement. but i had a very much more basic question for the secretary was that, you know, following what happened with general stanley mcchrystal's interview with the "rolling stone." i wanted to know why he agreed to even sit down and speak with bob woodward. i asked him that yesterday. >> we didn't get into any specifics about issues or anything like that. and i -- i had his questions in

advance, and they were sort of at the 40,000-foot level about tone and atmosphere and the role of the president in this process. these were issues i'd spoken to publicly. and so i felt comfortable responding. >> so interesting that he said he had the questions beforehand. he also told me he was probably one of the last people to speak to gates. so he felt more comfortable knowing all the people in the obama administration who had already sat down with bob woodward. >> so in woodward's new book, the president comes off as somewhat frustrated with options he's getting from the pentagon for the troop build-up in afghanistan. how did the secretary react to the president coming up with his own memo? that six-page memo that he dictated? >> well, he sort of clarified that. he said -- and this is publicly. he said, look, the 30,000 number, even though the military was asking for 40,000. he said some of that extra

30,000 were 5,000 troops who wouldn't have been able to get into afghanistan until, you know, middle of next year. so he said sort of take that off the table. he said some of our allies provided more troops than we originally thought they would. that gave us an extra 5,000. so he said all in all it worked out to him about what the military was asking for. >> chris, thanks. and this programming note. bob woodward is going to be larry king's guest next week on wednesday night at 9:00 eastern right here on cnn. meantime, church pastor eddie long will be making his first public comments on a sex scandal on sunday. through his attorneys he has denied the claims in now three lawsuits that he coerced young male church members into sex. he posted a comment saying thanks for the love and support. at least one school district is going to cost you. a high school's answer to dillydallying.

pony up. 16 minutes after the hour. breathe in, breathe out.

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20 minutes past the hour. welcome back to the most news in the morning. we're minding your business. well, when you're looking for a new or used car, maybe you can test drive the car, check the oil. do you check the tires anymore? >> i don't think so. the gm engineer releasing a list of songs you should bring with you to test the speakers to. "boom, boom, pow" by the black eyed peas. >> for clarity, "hotel

california" by the eagles, and "no one" by alicia keys. and for vocals, it should be "diamonds and rust." >> and nora jones "don't know why" should be on your play list. >> not bad. get a little copy of his ipod shuffle. >> he had some good tunes on it. and looking for a lot of response from your stereosystem. for a second day in a row, the world's largest networking site was down for several hours yesterday. people couldn't post second round of laundry, daughter ate apple sauce for lunch. facebook said it was a technical glitch. on wednesday facebook said a third party network provider crashed the site. some folks on twitter had fun with the situation. jokingly put out a breaking news bulletin writing worker productivity rises, u.s. climbs out of recession. are you late to class ever?

if you are, in one particular district, fork over your lunch money. one school is fining students $5 if they're late. school says the money raised goes to the teacher who stays after school with those kids who chose the 30 minutes detention as opposed to the $5. >> it's almost like the game of monopoly. you get the pass in the middle. >> don't pass go, go directly to jail for some kids who can't afford the $5. america's mad about "madmen," and braooke anderson gets a behind-the-scenes look. [ female announcer ] what if your natural beauty could be flawless, too?

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♪ 25 minutes in after the hour. remember lady gaga's meat dress? well, now it's getting chewy. they're making beef jerky out of it. the designer of the meat dress says it's going to go through a process where it becomes a sort of jerky and will be archived. gary here in the studio, he makes his own beef jerky. >> gary and dean. and we're so lucky on this show, we get so much homemade jerky. >> we don't believe you're going to get a chance to taste lady gaga's dress which she said she wore in protest of the military's don't ask, don't tell

policy, that people shouldn't be treated like meat, they should just wear it. >> i guess so, but i can't believe that cher actually hugged her. i would not have hugged that bloody meat dress. >> cher's a vegan, isn't she? >> i don't know, but that would have made it even worse. look at that. i hug you so tight, all right. now i need a clorox wipe. >> i love the steak on her head. >> delicious. now to an a.m. original. it's tv's best drama three years running now. not just emmy voters mad about "madmen." >> the show has become nothing short of a pop culture phenomenon. cnn's brooke anderson has a closer look at don draper and company for us this morning. >> reporter: one of the most talked about tv shows these days is no question amc's "madmen." fans of the show are obsessed. they are in love with the look of the show, myself included.

to find out why so many are mad about "madmen," we are going straight to the woman responsible for the stylish appeal of the show. and i get a "madmen" makeover. >> you must be don draper. >> don. >> reporter: stunning suits, gorgeous gowns, the vintage fashion on "madmen" gets as much attention as the emmy-winning drama itself. jamie bryant is costume designer for "madmen" which has developed a cult following. >> it's about these people's journey through life. and i think everybody can relate to that. because it's a period show, there's a little more eye candy. i think all of the elements of the show are very contemporary. >> reporter: some of the themes explored, divorce, drinking, dating may be contemporary, but set in the mid-60s, the show is a throwback to fashion formality. something bryant says has modern day appeal.

>> i think people have maybe grown tired of being so casual. and i think that they've really responded to the beautiful aspects of late 1950s and '60s. >> reporter: bryant styled me head to toe in two "madmen" looks. and ladies, i learned you've got to start with your foundations. >> foundations, yes. that's what you would call your intimate apparel back then. the foundations -- that really is the foundation of how your garment is going to look on your body. >> reporter: as for the actual madmen, don draper's real lifestyle is different. >> i very much dress for comfort rather than style when i'm not working. >> reporter: bryant's attention to detail has won her praise from the cast. >> each one of us represent a different style of woman in our fashion sense. and so you really get to see a real gamut of styles from the

'60s between peggy, betty, and joan. >> reporter: all great tv shows run the risk of jumping the -- yet four years into the series, "madmen" madness are growing. there are facebook cpages and contests. bryant credits "madmen" creator for the ongoing success. >> you just fall in love more and more and more and more. with each episode. >> reporter: and each episode is another opportunity for fans to fall back in time and into fabulous fashion. jamie bryant recently launched her very own fashion line on qvc. so now anyone can have her very own vintage-inspired look. john, kiran. >> brooke looks good in the 1960s. >> she looks really, really beautiful. classy and elegant. nice look. crossing the half hour now.

it's time for this morning's top stories. senate democrats deciding now is not the time to vote on extending middle class tax cuts. opting instead to wait until after the midterm elections, leaving millions of taxpayers wondering what will become of their take home pay in 2011. well, space capsule in a jam. a russian capsule that was supposed to bring home three astronauts from the international space station got stuck last night. they were sent back into the station after trying to get loose for two hours. engineers are now going over pictures and video trying to figure out what went wrong and they're going to give it a go soon. a search for a killer this morning after a diplomat was found dead in his new york city apartment. his throat slashed. his world leaders met during the u.n. general assembly. the official had lived in new york city for eight years. iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad wants the united nations to launch an independent investigation of the 9/11 attack. the iranian leader telling the u.n. general assembly yesterday that the u.s. was behind it and

the entire world knows. >> that remark prompted the u.s. and european delegations to get up and leave the hall in protest. but along with the outrage comes hope that iran may be ready to sit down and talk about the nuclear ambitions. jill dougherty is following it all live in washington this morning. and his statements about 9/11, somewhat bizarre, many people think, jill. >> you know, john, there's really -- i think you'd have to say a perverse fascination with watching president ahmadinejad. because every year that he comes to the united nations, he does make over the top statements. but this one was really more over the top than usual. he said essentially that the u.s. government orchestrated the 9/11 attacks to help its economy, its ailing economy and to help israel. and he did say he wants an investigation to look into the causes for 9/11. let's listen to what he said.

>> translator: it is proposed that the united nations set up an independent fact-finding group for the event of september 11 so that in the future expressing views about it -- so that to ensure that the different views about it are not banned from discussion in the future. >> the white house spokesman robert gibbs said that president obama found those comments outrageous and offensive. especially since they were said very close to ground zero. and then there was a statement from the u.s. mission to the united nations saying that -- calling this vile conspiracy theorys, antisematimitic slurs. you have to have a double mind here. there may be some movement toward talking with iran, even in the midst of all of these comments. >> it is interesting. and you hear some other comments like former new york mayor

giuliani said this should show the time for dialogue is over. it's almost as if ahmadinejad here in the united states is hurting his own cause. >> i'm sure in his mind he thinks he is expressing the right view. and at that point after he made those statements, of course, the united states walked out and several other nations walking out of that hall. out of complete frustration on these comments. that said, there are, you know, the p-5 plus one, the six countries that are dealing with iran's nuclear program. they believe and want -- they said this week -- an early resumption of talks with iran. mr. obama in his speech which preceded this said that the door is still open to talking and engaging with iran. an so i think it's best to keep a split mind and look at those comments but also look at what's going on behind the scenes.

>> if he has a desire to talk, he expresses it in a strange kind of way, doesn't he? >> and jill, a lot of people are asking why is he allowed to speak? >> well, it is the united states of america, but it is the united nations inside the united states. so he as a -- as the leader of a country. he after all is the president of a nation. and he, according to u.n. rules does have the right to speak. and that's all part of the way it should be. what he says, of course, people can react to and that's why he had the walkouts. >> jill dougherty, thanks so much. facebook's founder has about 40,000 new friends this morning. he's giving about $100,000 to the troubled schools in newark, new jersey. only about half of those students will graduate and only a fifth of them will go on to a four-year college. we'll talk about whether this huge chunk of charity will make a difference. it's 34 1/2 minutes after the hour.

♪ if you had $1 million you might do one thing, but what if

you had $100 million? well, a tech whiz kid, rising public star, and oprah all getting together today to help give inner city kids what they hope is a brighter future. today on the oprah winfrey show, mark zuckerburg will announce he is giving $100 million to the troubled public school system in newark, new jersey. joining us now to talk more about this why he's doing it is steve perry. and david kirkpatrick, the author of "the facebook effect." newark schools are nothing short of terrible. they spend about $22,000 per student on education. that's 47% higher than the state average. yet 46% of those students fail to graduate, and only 20% go on to attend a four-year college. so you've got to ask yourself, giving this school system $100 million, is it going to make any difference? >> first we have to say that

congratulations to the district for attracting this level of attention. and mr. zuckerburg has done something amazing by committing this amount of money. however, no, money is not the reason why newark's public schools have failed. they failed because they've been run ineffectively, they fail because they're not designed to perform. and as a result, the children are being given a horrible academic experience. so money's not going to solve this problem at all. >> so throwing $100 million at it, what does that do? >> it doesn't -- i don't know what it's going to do. i don't know that it can do anything. i think what we need to look at is how are the schools going to change? is the money going to give us more programming so our students now are going to have band when they didn't have band? are they going to have more math classes as opposed to before? and is everything going to be improved? see, it can't be just giving this district money. it has to be changing the way the district operates.

mr. booker said to me in an interview earlier this year that he understands that choice and accountability are, in fact, paramount in terms of improving education. but choice in and of itself is not monitored. at the rate in which charter schools are growing nationally, we can't monitor the effectiveness of them. so we need to put in place strategies to ensure they're not just opened but they're better. >> hold on that point, steve. why do you think he's doing this? it's not just a philanthropic gift here, it's spotlight fellowsh philanthropy because he's going on oprah. they're drawing an awful lot of attention to this. what do you think is behind it? >> for him, this is a huge move. he's never given any big gift to philanthropy before. he's never sold his facebook stock in any quantity before. so this is a huge gesture on his part that's very different from

the way he's ever behaved before. clearly despite what we were just hearing, he believes he's going to make a difference in newark somehow by doing this. you know, charter schools and giving people choice and i'm sure he also believes that technology could be a factor in helping american education in newark in particular and i'm sure he hopes that'll be used for that in some part. >> the premiere of the "social network" is out tonight. is he trying to fight back against that image? >> this can't be a complete coincidence. clearly the movie that premieres tonight and opens nationwide next week, which really does portray him unflatteringly is something he's not happy about. it cannot be a complete coincidence that the first time he's ever come out of the gate and basically done anything related to anything other than facebook is exactly when the movie's coming out. on the other hand, i do believe he really does believe in education. and i think probably what happened was, you know, this is

something he's been talking about for a long time with a sort of vague aim to counter the image problem with the movie. the fact it ends up coming on the exact same day that the movie premieres has got to have been an uncomfortable coincidence that even he didn't want. >> steve, we understand as part of the deal, governor chris cristy is going to hand over some control of the school from the state to the local government. so mayor cory booker will have a greater say in what happens in the schools there. will that help to make this public/private partnership more effective, do you think? >> i don't know. 15 years ago newark had control of their school district and they lost it because they failed to educate the children. mr. booker seems to be well-intended. i'm looking forward to seeing what he's going to do. but i don't know that he has the options within his academic menu to provide the children what is it they need. i don't know that he has enough school providers in his -- in

his district to even create the level of schooling he's going to need. it's not just about turning around failed schools because you need to create from ground up better schools. and so whether or not cory booker is responsible for that, i don't think that's going to determine the effectiveness of the product. he has to be able to attract academic providers from all over the country. and in some cases as new york is doing from all over the world to come in and be part of the solution. if this money is a way to do that, then it could prove to be effective. if it is not -- if it is simply spent, then it'll be right back where they were. >> that all makes sense to me. regardless, though, the fact that we have the premiere young entrepreneur in the world and probably the greatest leader of his generation, the most impactful person of his generation making this gesture that what he really cares about is improving american education, that could be catalytic in some way itself. and he is in line with bill gates. and the richest people, the people thinking the hardest

about how can they make a difference with a lot of money are saying this problem of american education is so serious that something dramatic has to happen to make it better. so, you know, whether or not the specifics are going to happen in newark or not -- >> this is not about the founder of facebook. for me it's about academics and about what happens in the schools. and we've been throwing money at the problem for a long time. i'm going to applaud the fact he's giving the money, but in terms of performance, creating a better academic experience, if money were the issue, then prisons would be the most effective place to send children because that's where we spend the most money. it's about transforming the way in which we operate public education. >> and with that, steve perry, always great to see you, thanks for coming in. david kirkpatrick, great to see you, as well. >> thanks, guys. it's 44 minutes past the hour, rob marciano will have the travel forecast. he talked about showers on the way for chicago. could be causing some delays. but he also has his eyes on tropical storm matthew. he's going to be giving us an

update. also, spending the day picking vegetables at a farm. stephen colbert spends a day on capitol hill after doing that for a house hearing about farm workers. we're going to get details from our politics.com desk coming up. [ female announcer ] what if your natural beauty could be flawless, too? new aveeno positively radiant tinted moisturizers, with scientifically proven soy complex and natural minerals give you sheer coverage instantly, then go on, to even skin tone in four weeks. new aveeno tinted moisturizers. i know who works differently than many other allergy medications. hoo? omnaris. [ men ] omnaris -- to the nose! [ man ] did you know nasal symptoms like congestion can be caused by allergic inflammation? omnaris relieves your symptoms by fighting inflammation. side effects may include

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morning. hey, rob. >> good morning, guys. this front that's trying to make its way across the east coast and cool things off to a little bit more normal, it's moving real slow. and we've seen some rain here along this front that's been pretty heavy, especially across parts of wisconsin where right now there are still flood warnings out because of rivers that will be cresting over the weekend. here's video out of arcadia, wisconsin. evacuations were ordered yesterday as the river was rising quickly. and about 2,000 people were forced to evacuate. national guard called in all sorts of nasty stuff. they had over 1/2 foot of rain coming in less than 48-hour period. and that will do it there. other parts of wisconsin, including columbia county and along the wisconsin river may very well see flooding that was -- hasn't been this bad since 1993 as that river begins to crest some time over the weekend. this is just 24-hour rainfall tallies. you go 48 hours you're going 6 to 10 inches in some areas. and this front, again, trying to make its way into some very,

very warm air. we're seeing temperatures 15 to 20 degrees above average, over 90 again yesterday in d.c. that's the 56th day that they've seen plus 90. and that sets a record. so here is tropical storm matthew. look at how it explodes here. it's about 200 miles east of the honduras/nicaragua border. and what it does after that is interesting for our purposes. hovers over the yucatan, we don't know, actually, john and kiran, what this is going to do next week. but it could get into the gulf of mexico, which makes everybody more nervous. back to you guys in new york. >> looks like a right turn after the yucatan. and could it build back into a big storm? >> very easily. does it make it across the yucatan? we don't know at this point but it bears watching very closely. >> thanks so much. true to his tough guy persona, the wrecking ball

governor of new jersey chris cristy goes head to head. not new jersey, california. >> we're not used to that in california. during its first year, the humpback calf and its mother are almost inseparable. she lifts her calf to its first

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use just once per day for dawn-to-dark hold. it is important to use the product as directed. fixodent and forget it. about seven minutes until the top of the hour. welcome back to the most politics in the morning. we're taking a look at the political ticker. stephen colbert is called before congress. is this a joke or expert testimony? >> mark preston live at the cnnpolitics.com desk for us this morning. mark, there's a lot to talk

about this morning. >> there sure is john, there sure is, kiran. stephen colbert has capitol hill abuzz. fridays here in washington tend to be kind of sleepy. but today stephen colbert of comedy central is going to be on capitol hill testifying about this very hot-button issue of immigration. you know, he spent a day on a corn farm up in new york. spending really walking a day in the shoes of a migrant farm worker. he's been talking about it on his show the last couple of nights. i will tell you having watched those clips, it'll be interesting to see what he does say during this hearing. i suspect he's going to be probably sympathetic to the migrant farm worker. so stephen colbert on capitol hill, a story we're following here at cnn. very interesting story. but check this out, as well. governor chris cristy takes on a heckler. the former ebay ceo running for governor, and a heckler got up

and really started to get into meg whitman's face. chris cristy stood up for her. let's take a look at what he did. >> hey, listen, you know what? you want to yell, yell at me. but don't give her a hard time. we're here -- we're here talking about the future of the state of california and the future of our country, and you know what? -- and you know what -- and you know what? let me tell you this. you know what? it's people who raise their voices and yell and scream like you that are dividing this country. we're here bringing this country together, not to divide it. >> there you have chris cristy right there, the new jersey governor standing up to a heckler. tell you what, the take away from this week in politics. one, chivalry is not dead, certainly not in politics. and if i'm ever in a barroom fight, i think i want chris cristy to have my back. >> that's why they call him the wrecking ball, right? in fairness, chris cristy didn't have to yell, he had a microphone.

>> but he was sitting down and he got up and he really, you know, addressed that heckler right on. a lot of people might have sat there and didn't engage. kind of interesting he did it. >> sometimes the best moments come out of that. the president also addressed hecklers when they were protesting the don't ask, don't tell. he said, listen, i'm on your side. and it was a good moment where you got to see people, you know, acting a little more real. >> yeah, no question. often times a great defense is a strong offense. you know, kind of adds to the whole live aspect of the event. >> yeah, california not quite ready for chris cristy. all right. thanks, mark. we'll check back in with mark in an hour's time. and for all the latest political news, go to our website at cnnpolitics.com. it's 57 minutes past the hour. we'll be right back. a great day to save.

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murder mystery in the backdrop of the u.n. a diplomat found with his throat slashed. the search for a suspect intensifies this morning. powering up, tropical storm matthew on the move, bracing for landfall this weekend. and healthy lunch 101, congress giving schools a lesson in eating right on the most news in the morning. >> and good morning to you, it's friday, september 24th. glad you're with us on this "american morning." >> thanks so much for being with us. here are this morning's top stories. the diabetes drug avandia pulled from the market in europe. it's now available only in the united states. but here, they have put tough new restrictions on it. regulators deciding the drug's health risks outweigh the potential benefit. our dr. sanjay gupta coming up

with important medical information for the 600,000 americans taking avandia. he'll be coming our way in a moment. also senate democrats are deciding not to vote right now on extending middle class tax cuts. they say they'd rather wait until after the november elections. it's leaving millions of americans wondering what will become of their take home pay in 2011. and defense secretary robert gates weighing in on bob woodward's account of a battle royale within the obama administration over afghan war strategy. gates says the new book overplays the internal conflict. and our top story this morning, the search is on for a killer. after a shocking discovery not far from the united nations right during the meeting of the general assembly. a nicaraguan diplomat who worked in new york for eight years was found dead in his bronx apartment. it was a gruesome crime scene. susan candiotti has the latest on the investigation. we learned some information about a possible motive.

>> well, they're now saying they don't know exactly why it happened. but they're saying there was no evidence of a robbery. again this leaves open other possibilities and they're looking into a number of them. we can tell you they found a bloody scene at the small studio apartment where this young diplomat lived. 34-year-old cesar mercado. he worked here in new york for eight years. his body was found yesterday morning when the driver came to pick him up. the front door was closed, but not locked. when they went inside, they found the body just inside the door. they found two knives, his throat had been slashed and he'd been stabbed in the stomach. the knives were not next to the body, they were in the bathroom. one knife was a 12-inch knife, a steak knife, and a smaller paring knife was found in the sink, which was described by police as filled with blood. so now police have to track

down, you know, how this could've happened, what other possibilities are involved here? what led to this? and it's just a mystery right now. >> other than the obvious the knives and the body, what else would police have removed from the apartment to examine this? >> well, one thing they'd want to look at certainly is look at his phone records, look at a computer, talk to people who knew him to see obviously whether he had any enemies, this kind of thing. i can tell you that neighbors certainly in that building are absolutely stunned about what happened and so are his colleagues who work with him. and they said he was at work just the day before. one of his colleagues at the mission said this, "we have absolutely no clue what would be the reasons for what would apparently be a horrendous murder, but forensics will tell the story." >> the police investigators took his car, as well. >> they did, which had diplomatic plates on it. of course, the driver came to pick him up. whether they've established the time of death is still something we're trying to find out.

>> susan, thanks. now to an "american morning" health alert. the potential life and death decision now facing hundreds of thousands of diabetics in america who are taking the drug avandia. avandia has been banned in europe. and here in the united states, the food and drug administration says new patients who want the drug will face tough restrictions. dr. sanjay gupta joins us live this morning from the cnn center in atlanta. this has been a controversial drug. the focus of a lot of reports and concern. now something's being done, sanjay. >> that's right. this is a medication that showed a lot of promise. a lot of diabetics looking for medications. really back more than three years ago now, there were concerns that were raised. could there be a link to heart attacks, heart problems with this particular medication? there were hearings in july of this year and people have been waiting for a decision for some time now. the decision sort of as you say, two parts to it. one is that patients who are currently taking avandia, they

can stay on this medication as long as they sign a waiver that says that they are aware of the health risks that we're talking about specifically. new patients have to go through a process. and this process has to be developed by the drug company. but basically in a nutshell, they have to simply prove that other medications that exist to treat diabetes don't work. and that's sort of the conclusion the fda came to. so it's a pretty strict thing in they're not pulling it from the market, but they're going to greatly limit how much of this avandia is out there in the united states. >> in europe, quite a different story. what happened there? >> yeah, you know, this is one of those interesting things. i think it shows how scientists can look at the same evidence and they come to the same conclusion, but they weight it a little bit differently. in europe, avandia's not going to be available at all. it's not going to be available. there's going to be no advertisements. it's been pulled completely. you know, both the european -- sort of the equivalent of the fda in europe and the fda had

conversations. they tried to coordinate how they were going to approach avandia, but in the end, they came to slightly different conclusions here. in the united states, they want to keep it as part of the arsenal, but limit it. >> but when it comes to the dangers, what are they? what should they be watching for? >> well, one thing worth pointing out, it's a bit controversial as to exactly what the dangers are and how much the dangers are there. the company itself gla glaxosmithkli glaxosmithkline, they released a statement saying avandia is going to remain a good treatment for diabetes. but the concern from scientists is twofold. one is, is this a medication that causes fluid retention in the body that is profound enough to actually cause heart problems? that's the issue. but john, as you know, this issue always comes up. you have someone treated for diabetes, they're taking the medication. diabetes can cause heart problems. is it the diabetes or the medication?

in this case they compared avandia and found that avandia still posed this risk. it wasn't the disease itself, it was more the drug. well, it didn't take long for mahmoud ahmadinejad to clear a few seats at the u.n. general assembly. ahmadinejad in a fiery speech slammed washington, criticized capitalism, and took a few shots at the world body itself. but it was his statement about 9/11 that got all of the headlines, proving to be the most outrageous. the iranian leader insisting "some segments within the u.s. organization orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining american economy and its grips on the middle east in order to save the zionist regime." the majority of most american people as well as politicians around the world agree with this -- apparently not. the remarks sent european and u.s. delegates to the hall in

protest. we got word from the eu. they put out a statement calling the 9/11 remarks by ahmadinejad "outrageous and unacceptable." the first woman executed in virginia in nearly 100 years. teresa lewis was put to death by lethal injection last night. found guilty of hiring men to kill her husband and son for insurance money. defense attorneys argued that lewis was borderline mentally disabled. seven minutes past the hour now to politics and your paycheck. are they on a collision course this morning? well senate democrats have decided not to vote on extending middle class tax cuts until after the november elections. in other words, your take home pay hangs in the balance come january 1st. brianna keilar's live from washington this morning. and there's a chance it could go right down to the wire. there's a chance nothing could get done. what's going on right now? >> well, democratic leaders are saying that they couldn't get this done because they were getting no support from

republicans, kiran. but what you have is a split in the democratic party that put off dealing with these tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year. to put that after until after the november election. most democrats said, hey, let's get behind president obama's plan. we'll keep in place those tax cuts for americans who make $250,000 or less. and they said if republicans vote against it, we can slam them for holding tax cuts for the middle class tax cuts hostage for the wealthy. but the thing was, there was a small minority of democrats who say this is a bad idea. they're vulnerable democrats fighting for reelection. and they basically said, look, we're fighting for our political lives. don't give our gop opponents the ability to say we're raising taxes during a bad economy. and so we're seeing this kick down the road after the election on these tax cuts, kiran. >> so interesting, though, because there are many in the democratic party and some, you know, democratic pundits who say

this is the key issue to get behind. this is really, kiran, black and white. it's a winning situation for democrats, yet it doesn't appear that's how some of them feel as they head into, as you said these midterms and hotly contested districts. >> we also had some democrats who said they felt like they were winning on the messaging here that they felt they were aligning themselves with the middle class on these tax cuts. and so they're saying, let's win on that messaging, but we also don't have to make these vulnerable democrats make this tough vote because some of them were saying right away we're going to be having ads up from our republican opponents who say, look, the democrat is raising taxes during a bad economy. and they felt like they were going to pay dearly for it in november. >> we'll see what happens after the elections. people take the vote then and we'll see. thanks, brianna. also new this morning, the justice department objecting to a request filed in federal court for an immediate halt to the

military's don't ask, don't tell policy toward gays. the white house says it is committed to a repeal, but terminating the 17-year-old policy immediately would be untenable and could put service members at risk. this is a flight delay you don't want. the three astronauts were heading home from the international space station, but nasa says that the spacecraft got stuck while it was trying to undock from the space station last night. nasa engineers are trying to figure out what's wrong. the astronauts are going to give it a try again. they could be on their way home tonight. >> that's a heck of a place to get stuck. technical problems are being blamed, facebook calling the 2 1/2-hour crash the worst it's had in four years. on wednesday, company executives say a third party network provider caused another lengthy outage. oregon public broadcasting put its tongue in cheek putting out a breaking news bulletin that read "worker productivity rises.

u.s. climbs out of recession." >> it may be a little bit of truth to that. people spend a lot of time on facebook. >> unbelievable how much time they spend on facebook, on twitter, texting each other. you know, the devices always in the hand. >> yeah. >> does anybody read anymore? >> and it's not always about work, you know. not always discussing work issues. >> i would hardly think they are at all. well, we have our 13th named storm, tropical storm matthew roaring towards central america this morning. it could make a turn for the southeast united states next week. rob's been keeping an eye on it. the extreme weather center is where he is this morning. we're talking about hurricane hunter aircraft going in -- >> i'm just updating my status there talking about the weekend there. >> when you tweet or facebook, you're actually giving us weather info. >> i get annoyed when people give me useless information. so i try to put out useful

information. so yeah, we'll be tweeting about matthew throughout the weekend and into next week. we've got this tropical storm that's blown up. and look at the satellite really exploded here. we've got winds at 50 miles an hour. we'll be increasing lightly over the next day or two. as it begins to head towards e the -- the yucatan peninsula and honduras/nicaragua border. it'll do that tomorrow as a potentially strong tropical storm. and we don't know what happens after that. and once it does that, then all bets are off because you're pretty much surrounded by land. and the u.s. impact would certainly be in play next week. of greater concern immediately as the rainfall happening across parts of wisconsin. check out some of the video coming out of arcadia, wisconsin, yesterday. evacuations in this town lies along the river. and it just, boom, up and over the banks with over 1/2 foot of rainfall in less than a 48-hour period. and there are a number of counties along the wisconsin river that will be in flood

stage as we get to sunday. could see flooding as bad as we saw back in 1993. meanwhile also, record heat across the eastern third of the country. all that and much, much more to come and multiple tweets between now and our next hit in the next 30 minutes. >> thanks, rob. >> thanks, rob. coming up on the most news in the morning. the war within the white house. bob woodward's new book reveals internal battles over u.s. strategy in afghanistan. now robert gates is answering back. we'll have that answer coming up. 13 minutes after the hour. it's work through the grime and the muck, month. tow and pull without getting stuck month.

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16 minutes past the hour, welcome back to "american morning." stories we're watching this morning. police in san antonio releasing a tape that featured a little bit of a brawl on a bus between two moms. one of them had a baby strapped to her chest when it happened. the city recently announced a new code of conduct for bus riders. and they're using this video from back in 2009 as an example

of how not to behave. well, a tense three minutes, 23 stories above the city of buffalo, the french daredevil completing a high wire walk between the twin statues of the city's liberty building last night. he's not done yet. there he is, there he is. he's got three high-wire walks planned in niagara falls on sunday. >> he's got a safety harness on. what kind of challenge is that? >> that's a piece of cake. we can do that with our eyes closed in high heels. >> and how about that brawl on the bus with the baby? >> what not to do. >> come on. defense secretary robert gates says the president's new afghan strategy is working. and he doesn't expect major changes after an upcoming review in december. he says the u.s. and its allies are making slow, tough progress in the war zone. >> i believe that actually this is one of those instances where the closer you are to the front line in some respects, the better it looks.

>> terry gates is also weighing in on bob woodward's new book. chris lawrence is live at the pentagon for us this morning. what's the secretary saying about obama's wars? >> yeah, john, he was pretty blunt. he said the first phases of this war back in 2001 and 2002, he said we won that phase when the u.s. troops came in and kicked the taliban out of afghanistan, girls started going to school again. he was also very blunt in saying we then took our eye off the ball. we got distracted by iraq. he says we didn't resource and fund the war in afghanistan. and he was honest. he says, look, the taliban came back in. and he also said really it hasn't been until about the last year and a half that he feels the war has been resourced to the point where they can make an actual change in afghanistan. >> i would say since the beginning of 2009 with the

president's first decision to add another 21,000 troops and then his decision in december to add another 30,000 and the increase in civilians that we have actually begun. and i would say a trickling of the foreign -- of our partners' troops, that we have actually got the resources in afghanistan to partner with the afghans and have some prospect of dealing with a resurgent taliban. >> again, getting the resources just last year for a nine-year war. he also seemed to telegraph a little bit about what to expect in the coming months when this next strategy review happens in december. he says it's not going to be anything like the one that happened last year. more tweaks and changes. no wholesale strategy change. in fact, the defense official here in the building told me. he said, think of it like you're adjusting the old rabbit ears on your television, but not actually changing the channel. >> chris lawrence for us live at the pentagon this morning. thanks. this programming note, bob

woodward is going to be larry king's guest next week on wednesday night, 9:00 eastern right here on cnn. when will he switch back to campaign mode? the architect of president obama's 2008 run and one of his closest advisers in the west wing now talking about his future this morning. david actixelrod's next move. it's 20 minutes past the hour.

welcome back to the most news in the morning. 23 minutes past the hour. we've been following the story of the embattled mega church pastor eddie long. he'll be making his first comments on this growing sex scandal from the pulpit sunday. through his attorneys, he's denied the claims in three lawsuits that he coerced young male church members into sex. long has a congregation of more than 30,000 followers. and he thanked people for their prayers and support in a twitter message last night. the catholic church has been rocked by cases of priest sex abuse. >> the cnn special investigation premiering this weekend raises questions about what the pope knew and when during his time as a cardinal and vatican official. gary tuchman joins us with a preview of this special

investigation. >> hello to you. the reason we're doing this now is we've obtained previously secret documents from the vatican. these are documents that for 30 years were in the vatican safe. and bishops throughout the united states were writing letters desperately asking him to please, get rid of priests in our diocese who have molested children. in some cases, these priests were already in jail. in some cases these priests wanted to be let go of their obligations. but what the documentation shows was that the cardinal slowed down or opposed the defrocking of these priests. and back then the vatican does acknowledge that cardinal ransinger allowed him to be in the parish. all the officials did a miserable job of keeping an eye on this man.

he molested again. and we talk to one of the victims of the priest. >> translator: they should have suspended him in 1980. mr. ratzinger or whoever should've cut him off. this would've saved a lot of victims from him. >> reporter: the vatican admits that they approved it. but said it was his deputy who placed the pedophile priest in a new parish. a decision the vatican says ratzinger was unaware of. the vatican's prosecutor worked for years on sex abuse cases. when he sat down with me at the vatican, it was his first ever television interview on the pope's record. >> now, we're talking about a big, huge diocese with a minimum of 100 priests.

the archbishop needs a delegate. and he would then delegate his decisions and the follow-up, and two other people. >> that's totally understandable. but of those 1,000, i'd bet there are not that many sexual molesters. and it's probably pretty easy -- >> i hope not. >> it's probably pretty easy to keep track of sexual molesters. and my question for you is maybe it's possible that the cardinal could've done a better job of keeping track of the sexual molesters? >> when he delegates something, then you feel that you are responsible. now, it is very sad -- it is very sad to delegate things to people and they put you -- what do you do? you are frustrated. >> for the cardinal in munich did not know about father peter, he should've. that's one of the things that an archbishop does. you always know where your priests are. he wasn't minding the store. >> so, you know, that seems very

damning that, you know, it was all about delegation in some cases some would say passing the buck. anything good come out of this? >> i think it's fair to say that since the cardinal has been pope benedict, he's done more to combat child abuse, sexual abuse. he's met with victims, made public apologies. but what's noteworthy, these documents, we have his signature on them. and he's never made a personal apology. >> i was wondering about that. >> he's never made a personal apology. and a lot of victims in this hour, they didn't know about these things until we showed them the documents. and i felt terrible because they'd gone through 30 years -- 200 deaf children were molested by one priest and there was a delay in defrocking this man. and they couldn't hear and they couldn't talk and they were being repeatedly molested. >> has he accepted some sort of

personal culpability in this? >> not personal culpability. and in this documentary, we are in no way trying to slam the institution of the catholic church. it's an amazing institution that gives comfort and faith to hundreds of millions throughout the world. but we are slamming very severely these child molesters and people who should've and could've done more for the children. >> gary tuchman. it'll be very interesting. we'll be watching. thanks so much. and just a programming note. you can catch this, it's a cnn special investigation. what the pope knew in the entirety saturday and sunday night 8:00 eastern right here on cnn. we'll take a quick break. 28 minutes past the hour. we could've gone a more traditional route... ... but it wouldn't have been nearly as memorable.

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30 minutes past the hour. time for a look at our top stories. the fda's putting new restrictions on the popular diabetes drug avandia. and europe choosing to completely pull it off the market. doctors in the u.s. now prescribe it only as a last resort to certain patients. eddie fisher one of the most popular singers of the 1950s has passed away. ktla says he suffered from complications of hip surgery. he has two stars on the hollywood walk of fame. one for the millions of records he sold and another for television. but his biggest claim to fame may be his high-profile marriages to debbie reynolds, elizabeth taylor, and connie stevens.

and stephen colbert goes to washington. he's going to be testing on something quite series. an expert witness today on capitol hill. he spent a day last month picking vegetables on a farm in upstate new york. part of a campaign to invite u.s. citizens to replace illegal immigrants who work on farms. well, the man who built president obama's historic 2008 presidential campaign is already thinking repeat. senior adviser david axelrod talked about his future saying he'll leave the white house sometime next year to start on the 2012 campaign. he didn't nail down a date on when he'd depart from the white house. and another white house departure, defense secretary robert gates saying he wants to leave next year. our senior political editor mark preston is following that for us live at the cnnpolitics.com

desk. it's not a mass exitous, but it seems like we've been talking about one after the other the past few days. >> you often see this in an administration. a couple of years in. the people who were with the president in the first couple of years tend to leave. they want to get out before the new reelection campaign begins. and in fact, that's what we heard from robert gates yesterday. you know, his timing, he thinks if he gets out in 2011, the confirmation process for a new secretary of defense will not get caught up in politics. there is a very complicating factor, though. as you know, the president is talking about drawing down some of the 30,000 troops that he has sent to afghanistan for the afghanistan war. you know, our own adam levine who is the supervising producer down at the pentagon has a great story right now on cnnpolitics.com which caves into gates' thinking of whether he

st stays or goes. but gates is certainly looking for the exit. let's move on to the white house a little bit, as well. you talk about larry summers who is one of -- if not the -- top economic adviser. he's leaving, as well. and we're starting to hear from wall street executives that president obama might want to look to the business community for help with his economic team. we have a great story on cnnmoney.com. and we have ceos talking about the fact in order to have a real strong robust in varied economic teams, not only do you reach out to academic institutions, you need to reach out to the business community. so a great story on that. check it out on cnnpolitics.com. and let's close with this. you might want to chew your tivo over the next 39 days or so if you're not a political junky. so far we've seen $100 million

worth of ads being run by special interest groups. and we expect that to more than double as we head into election day. our friend here on "american morning" and here on cnn politics, he says expect to see more groups, more ads, and just a whole blanketing of these political commercials as we head into election day. if you're not a political junky, you might want to turn the tivo on. >> no question. one group of people who love the ad season, television stations who get all that revenue coming in. >> absolutely. make lots of money. >> thanks so much. we're going to check back in with mark in the next hour. and for a reminder of the latest political news go to cnnpolitics.com. nobody does it better. well, the only person living in a 125-unit condo high-rise in florida says, well, my lonely days are over this morning -- almost. you may remember the story. construction started on the building in '05. by the time it was done in '08, the real estate market had tanked. both buyers could not close a deal. all but one guy.

well, now the new owners are auctioning off the units, many at deep discounts to people who originally put down deposits. >> lovely looking building. i particularly like the kitchen. jetblue is planning to offer wi-fi in the sky. the airline says that the installation is going to start by the end of 2012. 2012? >> yeah, that seems a little -- >> get with the program, guys. it's 2010. come on. two years? what's taking them so long? >> they've got a lot of planes in that fleet. well, still to come. the stakes are high in nevada's senate race. the tea party's sharron angle threatening to unseat harry reid. the interesting thing, though, no one's really popular in the polls right there in that state. so how this outcome could impact the next presidential election. we're going to talk about it coming up. ong ♪ ♪ yeah, we really do

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38 minutes past the hour right now. time for this morning's top stories. the fda putting new restrictions on the popular diabetes drug avandia. it was completely pulled off the

market in europe. doctors in the u.s. now prescribing it only as a last resort. and you know what? we are going to switch to politics right now, as well. if you think of this year's midterm elections in terms of a chess match, a gop win in the nevada senate race could mean check mate for the democrats. in the battle for sharron angle and harry reid, potential control of the u.s. senate. let's take a look at the latest cnn opinion research poll. with angle having a one-point lead over senate majority leader harry reid. steve sebelius joins us to break it down. he's live with us this morning. thanks for getting up with us. >> no problem. glad to be here. >> when you look at those numbers, steve, no one's hitting it out of the park six weeks before election day. what's going on in nevada right now that's behind those numbers? >> well, i think the number one factor is harry reid's unpopularity -- his unfavorables

are at 52%. normally that's fatal for a politician. time to call the moving van. but in this race, harry reid kind of lucked out because sharron angle has a lot of bagga baggage. so her unfavorables have been rising as his ads have exposed some of the things she's said. neither candidate is very popular, but neither candidate can pull away either. >> let's pop up that graphic one more time. you see the none of the above. interesting, nevada the only state that allows none of the above on the ballot. it's pretty high right now. not undecided, but no, they're not voting for anybody. what does that do to the race? who does that favor? >> that actually favors harry reid because any vote for anyone but sharron angle helps harry reid. none of the above will do better than it's probably ever done before in nevada. i don't know if it'll get to 11%. but certainly it's going to be higher than it normally is as a

protest vote saying we don't like harry reid, but we really don't like sharron angle either, so we're not going to vote for either of them. >> it sort of seems like a bad move on the part of republicans. i know there was a big tea party surge and money in there for sharron angle, but buyers' remorse, because this probably wouldn't be close if it was another gop candidate. >> i think you're right. harry reid would've gone after whoever came out of that primary. and their negatives would have been driven up, as well. but candidates who ran in the primary, such as sue loudon, the son of the former coach, or even john chachis. i've got to believe they'd be doing far better than sharron angle has done. just not having her baggage to exploit. >> just to give people an example. she's not necessarily appealing to independents with some of the things she's said. she called the bp oil spill a slush fund. she says as your senator, i'm

not in the business of creating jobs. she was in a radio interview insisting a young girl who was raped by her father should not be allowed to have an abortion saying two wrongs don't make a right and that you can make lemons out of lemonade. regardless on where you stand on the issue, it didn't come out right. harry reid has also had his share of flubs, as well and angered people. he also said something in one speech. only 36,000 people lost their jobs today which is really good. >> yeah, harry reid, i think, in that case, that's probably the least of his gaffes. what he was trying to say is the number of jobs lost there isn't as bad as we expected. but think about some of the other things that harry reid had said. he called one of his fellow united states senators hot. he said that president obama is great because he doesn't have a negro dialect. he said the war is lost. that's something that's come back to haunt him. harry reid's aides get nervous every time he's around a microphone.

they're probably the biggest fans of health care reform because they're worried about having a heart attack every time harry reid speaks. you never know what the guy's going to say. and he shares a little bit of that with his opponent. >> and that's why none of the above is high right now in terms of the ticket. unemployment, also the highest in the nation in nevada right now. i think you're at 14.4%. how much of the anger is about the lack of answers in terms of unemployment. >> i think the key factor. there was a poll in the las vegas review conducted by mason-dixon that showed 71% of all nevadans think that's the biggest issue facing the country. that's what people are really concerned about. to an extent, all these ancillary issues, all of the gaffes the candidates made on the campaign trail are really irrelevant to people who are looking for jobs who can't find jobs and that, i think, has bedevilled harry reid. one of the reasons his numbers aren't higher and angle's been able to exploit that a little

bit. if that's what the voters go to the poll to decide the election, harry reid could lose. >> the anti-incumbent mood is at an all-time high, yet reid has been in congress since 1992. how is he proving, hey, put me back in there? i'll do a better job this time helping you guys get jobs. >> well, he's really having a difficult time proving that. harry reid has not only been in congress a long time, but he's also the majority leader of the democrats in the senate. he's tied to the barack obama agenda. and now even democrats are coming out and saying, look, the president's been focusing on a lot of things, health care and what not. but we need him to focus on jobs. we need our incumbents to focus on jobs. and harry reid, i think, is having a difficult time doing it. he can talk about the stimulus. they just passed a jobs bill that he says will give people jobs. but right now as you mentioned the unemployment rate is so high

that people are focused on that, i think, to the execution of everything else. >> bottom line, you are so close to this. you followed it. is he going to pull out a win in the end? >> well, we're in las vegas. if i was a betting man, i would bet on harry reid, but i wouldn't bet on a margin of victory more than 3%. the minor party candidates none of the above are going to draw some votes. but sharron angle is a factor. she can win, and i think harry reid's staff knows that and so they've been playing this race very tight. i think harry reid, ultimately, though, will pull it out. >> it's great to get your take this morning. steve sebelius, thank you. >> great to be with you, thanks. coming up, american hiker sarah shourd. she spent 410 days behind bars in iran before being released ten days ago. she joins us live coming up at 8:10 eastern. that's just about 25 minutes from now. and dangerous flooding in the upper midwest this morning. how does the rest of the nation look this weekend?

rob's got the forecast right after the break. it's now 46 minutes after the hour. at purina one, we want your dog to be as healthy as possible. so, we set out to discover the science in some of nature's best ingredients. we created purina one with smartblend. new, delicious shredded morsels and crunchy bites, with real meat, wholesome grains and antioxidants, for strong muscles, vital energy, a healthy immune system, and a real difference in your dog. purina one improved with smartblend. discover what one can do.

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well, i adapt. friday, we'll work with you here, john. and kiran, we'll start with tropical storm matthew, 50-mile-an-hour winds right now. this thing blew up yesterday. and it's about to come onshore nicaragua and honduras. moving very quickly. so they're getting hit with a strong tropical storm here tomorrow as it looks like when it's going to hit land. and this is what it does. over the next few days. kind of gets up into belize, yucatan peninsula. where it goes after that, not too sure, but if it does get into the gulf of mexico, pretty good chance of that happening one way, shape, or form next week. then we've got problems, anywhere from florida to texas coastline. definitely keeping an eye on that. so also keeping an eye on what's going on across the midwest. a lot of flood watches and warnings out actually for rivers on the rise. check out what happened in minnesota yesterday. south of minneapolis is where most of the rainfall was in some cases well over half a foot up to 9 or 10 inches up to a 48-hour period. rivers up and over their banks

there. that's the result there. not a whole lot more rain expected for you folks. but there are a lot of rivers, including the wisconsin river is not forecast to crest until tomorrow or sunday. here's some of the rainfall estimates. estimates. rochester, north, over 6 inches in the pink areas. radar estimating eight inches or so. heat, memphis 96 degrees. dulles, 56 days over 90 degrees. that's a record on top of it being the hottest summer on record. and now we're well into the second full day of fall and going to be 95 or so in d.c. try to stay cool. we'll have snow before too long. don't you worry. >> thank goodness. we don't want our pumpkins sun burned out there in d.c. >> no, no. >> thanks, rob. healthy meals make healthier kids? dr. sanjay gupta tells us about a new battle plan for the school lunches.

felicia jackson promised her late sister that she would take care of her children. but she needed help. i used my american express open card to get half a million points to buy building materials to help build the jackson family a new home. well, i know if my dad was still around, he would have told me, with no doubt... he would have told me it's a no brainer and i knew that from the start. it was an honor. booming is moving forward by giving back. words alone aren't enough. my job is to listen to the needs and frustrations of the shrimpers and fishermen, hotel or restaurant workers who lost their jobs to the spill. i'm iris cross. bp has taken full responsibility for the clean up in the gulf and that includes keeping you informed. our job is to listen and find ways to help. that means working with communities. restoring the jobs, tourist beaches, and businesses impacted by the spill. we've paid over $400 million in claims

and set up a $20 billion independently-run claims fund to cover lost income until people impacted can get back to work. and our efforts aren't coming at tax-payer expense. i know people are wondering-- now that the well is capped, is bp gonna meet its commitments? i was born in new orleans. my family still lives here. i'm gonna be here until we make this right.

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... sometimes it just takes us a little longer to get back. ♪ 54 minutes past the hour. first lady michelle obama made it her mission to try to end childhood obesity. congress is trying to do it its part. >> chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta joins us with details and there's an awful lot at stake with the health of our kids. >> there really is and i think people hear segment on school lunches and maybe the eyes start to glaze over but if you dig into the story it is quite interesting. there's 100 retired generals and admirals weighing in on this saying, look, the school lunches

are a real problem here and joined with tom vilsack, agricultural secretary to try to get the nutrition act passed by next week. why the military folks are so involved is saying specifically if you look at people between aging 17 and 24, more than a quarter of them are unfit to serve. they're unfit to serve in the military because they're too overweight. think about that. more than a quarter young adults unaware to serve and they point at school lunches and why it's coming up specifically. about 40% of a child's calories in the formative years come from school lunches and focus odd then particular issue thinking if they can start to reform that they can address this problem. parents have a certain expectation in terms of what the food is and what we're coming to learn is it's a lot of times they're not very good at all exceeding requirements of

saturated fat and sugar and that's a real problem. >> we talk about unhealthy school lunches and looking at the menus thinking how could anybody think that's a good idea for the kids to eat. what did you find? >> a lot of schools did not want the show us their mean ynus. i'm a parent who now has kids in school and i would like to think that the lunch they're offering is pretty healthy. 67%, about two thirds exceeded the dietary guidelines for fat intake. that's a starting point. 72% exceeded the salt requirements. typical menu, for example, on a day like friday, a choice of a hamburger, a chicken corn dog. those are the choices and then the three sides, french fries, coleslaw, mandarin oranges and red grapes. you had a few healthy choices and there's no mandate a child has to have healthy choices with

the particular entree and order whatever they want and watching the kids in the line no surprise i think in many ways what of those foods they're getting so, again, while healthy choices have become more widely available, there's no specific requirements on what the kids eat. >> sanjay, you called a chicken corn dog unhealthy? bite your tongue. >> for breakfast like you have it often, john, it is unhealthy. >> you have the rest of the day to work it off. >> right. if you go corn dog, go early. >> right. >> thanks, sanjay. top stories in two minutes. stay with us. mmmm. you don't love me anymore do you billy? what? i didn't buy this cereal to sweet talk your taste buds it's for my heart health. good speech dad. [ whimper ] [ male announcer ] honey nut cheerios tastes great and its whole grain oats can help lower cholesterol. bee happy. bee healthy.

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good morning. thanks so much for joining us on the most news in the morning on this friday. the 24th of september. i'm john roberts. >> i'm kiran chetry. plenty of good seats in the u.n. general assembly at iran's president took to the podium yesterday. ahmadinejad accusing the u.s. of master minding the 9/11 attacks. u.s. and european delegates moved their translators, ear pieces and walked out. american hiker sarah shourd

back home in the united states and talking about the ordeal in an iranian prison. two hiking companions including her iffiancee are still iran's prisoners. she joins us live just ahead. hurricane warnings in effect as tropical storm matthew gains strength and preparing to make landfall. our rob marciano has developments on where the storm is headed. am fix blog up and running. join the conversation at cnn.com/amfix. iranian's president mahmoud ahmadinejad thinks it's time for the u.n. to launch an independent investigation of the 9/11 attacks. the iranian leader telling the u.n. general assembly yesterday that the u.s. was behind it and that the whole world agrees. >> and that was tough to take for the delegates from the united states and europe. one by one they stood up and left the hall in protest. jill dougherty is following it

for us in new york and the europeans saying it was outrageous. >> americans are saying the same thing, too, john. earlier this week we were looking at president ahmadinejad with moderate comments at did u.n. and people thinking maybe things have changed. maybe he won't rail against the united states as he usually does. but this time, yesterday, he goes over the top again and that was claiming that the united states' government in some fashion had orchestrated the 9/11 attacks. why? he said it was to help the u.s. economy which he believes is failing. and then, also, to help israel. obviously, the comments are pretty over the top. and he also wants the u.n. to hold an investigation into 9/11. here's what he said. >> translator: it is proposed that the united nations set up an independent fact-finding group for the event of september 11 so that in the future

expressing views about it -- so that to ensure that the different views about it are not banned from discussion in the future. >> okay. so robert gibbs, spokesperson for president obama, said that the president found it outrageous and to fencive, those comments especially the fact they were made not far from ground zero and the u.s. mission to the united nations called them vile, conspiracy theories, anti-schmi anti-semitic and delusional. that was the level of conversation. but john, you'd have to say at the same time there is some hope, maybe slim, that the united states, that the country that is are allied with the united states and iran can begin to talk about the really important issue and that is its nuclear program. >> well, if he wants dialogue, he shows it in a strange way. >> that's true. and you have to wonder why.

you know, sometimes what the president says sounds really off base and almost crazy. but if you really tried to translate it, he's positioning himself as a spokesman for the rest of the world. the rest of the world that's angry at the united states, angry at the u.s. dominance, angry at capitalism and that comes up and up again. but again, behind the scenes there are indications that perhaps there might be some type of dialogue and president obama in his statement which proceeded the statement by mr. ahmadinejad was holding out the possibility if iran comes clean and says that there is peaceful, really proves there's peaceful intent for the program there might be dialogue. >> we'll see. jill dougherty, thanks. coming up, we'll be talking live with sarah shourd, she is the american hiker who was freed after 14 months in an iranian

prison. her fiancee and good friend are still being held and she wants to talk to ahmadinejad about their release. meantime, if you're trying to figure out how much money to hand over to uncle sam next year, you may have to wait a while because any chance of a vote on tax cut extensions for middle class americans abandoned by senate democrats. >> they have decided to wait until after election day to take up the matter of your take home pay. candy crowley, host of "state of the union" joins us now from washington this morning. so candy, they want to raise taxes on the highest income earners and have a sense that's not political palettible prior to the midterm election, it would seem. >> first, any time a vote is postponed in the senate, it means they don't have the votes. the majority doesn't have the vote to pass it. that's one thing that's senate 101. politics 101 is, they have some senators and in the house some congressional members, democrats, who are quite

vulnerable at this point in swing districts where they believe trying to defend the tax hike of any kind even if it is the rich will be difficult and they're already in races so dicey they have said to the leadership, don't put us on this particular platform right now. so there were both practical and political reasons for it, no votes. they want to save as many democrats as they can. >> you're saying they're saying it's because the republicans are holding it up but you're saying they don't have the votes in the senate or they would have held the vote? >> they're not necessarily mutually exclusive statements. the republicans were planning to vote against it and democrats, independent joe lieberman who didn't like the idea of raising taxes on anybody. including the rich saying it is just a bad time to do it. >> speaking of republicans, the republican governor of new jersey helping out his buddy over in california meg whitman and sparks threw at the event.

i want you to listen and get your take. >> hey, listen. hey! listen, you know what? you want to yell, yell at me. don't give her a hard time. we are here, we are here talking about the future of the state of california and our country and you know what? you know what? let me tell you this. you know what? it's people who raise their voices and yell and scream like you that are dividing this country. we're here to bring this country together. not to divide it. >> i guess they don't call him the wrecking ball for nothing. what do you make of that whole thing? >> listen. it's classic chris christie. it's what we have come to see what he took over as governor of new jersey in a tough race. they're so familiar with this in new jersey. i mean, go online at any given point and there is chris christie taking on somebody, be it the teacher's union. he is like a -- this is sort of part of who he is. so it's not at all surprising and i have to tell you he's definitely the flavor of the month when you talk to

republicans here in washington and elsewhere. i mean, i've even heard his name saying i'm looking for somebody like a chris christie, you know, somebody that stands for true conservative principles and he is making quite a name for himself nationally and i think you saw part of that in that exchange in california. >> what do you have happening on sunday morning? >> among other things, talking to senator dick durbin of illinois, as you know the democratic whip, the guy responsible for counting votes and may know something about why these tax extensions have been put off until after the election and what are the chances then. and we'll be discussing a little bit about the book that came out this book. bob woodward's book. >> looking forward to it. thanks so much. >> thanks. >> be sure to catch candy on "state of the union" sunday morning 9:00 eastern right here on cnn. we'll be watching. all right. we are going to take a quick break. again, as we said, we are joined

by sarah shourd in a few moments. she was the hiker that was released by the iranian government. meantime, let's check in with rob real quick keeping an eye in the hurricane headquarters for us on this storm matthew gaining strength and you're starting to be able to get a better gauge of its track, as well. >> yeah. it's going to make landfall tonight, late tonight, early tomorrow across honduras and nicaragua. it could be a hurricane strength or at least close to it before it makes landfall and making a couple landfalls it looks like this weekend. here's the forecast track. maybe scoot in across belize and into the yucatan peninsula and then after that, we don't know. certainly weaken but will it reemerge in the gulf of mexico? we don't know. we just know that it's really close to us and for that reason we're nervous about it and keeping a very close of it. florida to texas. you definitely want to have an

ear and eye to the hurricane headquarters. all right. other issue in the u.s. today is rainfall and a cool front marching eastward. this is what brought torrential rains and evacuations ordered across central wisconsin and southern minnesota. this will push east and cool down and dry out in those areas. ahead of it, record-breaking heat today. temps well into the 90s. d.c. boy, have you had a summer. 97 degrees expected there. 85 degrees expected in new york. muggy and feeling more like july or august. than the end of the september. john and kiran, back up to you. >> pretty amazing hotter in washington than it is there in atlanta. >> we are 1,000 feet elevation. no. that's only a small part of it. it's been that way all summer long seemingly. i think d.c.'s had probably more 90-day degrees than atlanta or close to it. >> thanks. hiker is a va shourd, spent

204 days in an iranian prison. inside her emotional captivity in iran. when she joins us live coming up next. stay with us. [ female announcer ] imagine skin so healthy, it never gets dry again.

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united states after being held for 14 months in an iranian prison but the home coming as welcome as it is is bittersweet. >> we are companions, sean bauer and friend josh fattal are still being held in that prison. the three of them were arrested last year. they were hiking in curd stan. supposedly near the i ran-iraq border when they were taken. sarah shourd is here to tell us about her ordeal and the efforts to get her two friends, a fiancee and friend, free this morning. thank you for being with us. >> thank you. >> i can't imagine the emotion you're going through. how are you physically and mentally after the release? >> well, it is hard to explain. i mean, of course, i feel grateful. i wouldn't be free if it wasn't for a huge groundswell of supports of governments and people across the world from desmond tutu in south africa to a homeless woman in san francisco donating money for us. it is incredible.

i know that the same people are doubling their efforts and no one's going to give up until sean and josh are with us. >> i can't imagine the experience. one moment hiking out there in the country and then the next you're in iran's notorious evin prison. >> nothing in life can prepare you for something like this. the only thick that got me through is thinking about my mother and suffering and loved ones and i had to come back to them. i had to walk out strong and now i have to be stronger than ever. i didn't expect it to end this way for me. i mean, it is not over but i didn't expect to have my freedom be so bittersweet. >> because they're still there and you as you said you know nothing. there's no information coming out. have you heard anything from the iranian government or anyone? >> no. it's always uncertain.

there's no guarantees, no assureties. we're hopeful. this is a good precedent. i was released on humanitarian and i feel confident they'll extend the same to my fiancee and dear friend and i hope it is soon. this is too long. now our pain was invisible. everyone is seeing the pain of our families which is in many ways just as bad. and in many ways worse, you know? but no one can see your pain when you're in prison. you're invisible. the guards, streaming down tears, slamming the door in my face and walk away. now only i know what sean and josh are enduring. i can see them in the cramped little cell with very little sunlight and only get out an hour a day and, you know, they exercise side by side on a space like the size of a towel. and they're wonderful, wonderful people. and i want the world to meet them. >> we've certainly got an idea of what your families were going through because we had josh's

brother alex and mom on a lot. we had your mom on one morning and we certainly know the pain that they were enduring but people wondering about the pain that you were in during and how you were treated. i know you have said that some of your captors were nice. some of them not so nice. did they ever physically abuse you? >> no. no. i mean, it is all psychological. and it's just the hardest thing, of course, is being so alienated from your family. i begged and cried for a phone call and i didn't get it until i think the seventh month. i'm still unclear on the chronology. but, you know, by the time i got a phone call i lost hope that it was going to happen and so many ups and downs. you think it will be over and then goes on and on and on. >> more than a year following the story every step of the way and some viewers also were wondering how it all started. can you just walk us through or just explain that day? you guys were hiking in kurdis

tan and then everything changed in an instant. >> yeah. my fiancee sean bauer and i have been fascinated by the region. we wanted to immerse ourselves in that part of the world to learn more about it and to be hopefully more of a bridge between the people in that region and the people in our country so i taught in damascus for a year and there's not a lot of green mountains in damascus. it's a beautiful country. >> a lot of brown. >> yeah. a lot of beautiful desert and craggy rocks and i had two friends that traveled in northern iraq. it's not a war zone. americans have not been hurt there. you know? even while all of the violence was raging in the south. it wasn't happening in the north so it was an easy place. i only had a week off of work of my teaching job in damascus so it was an easy, quick trip to some green mountains and we'd

been assured by our research that it was safe and really nothing like this happened there before. our story was completely unexpected and tragic. we did nothing wrong. >> why didn't the iranians believe you? i mean, they're accusing you of espionage-like charges. what was the point of that? >> i don't know if i 'll ever completely understand that but all i can say is we did nothing wrong. we meant no harm to the iranian people. we did not intend to cross the border. it was unmarked. we were on a trail behind the tourist site. there were hundreds of families there. very popular spot buy a waterfall and families picnic and i -- i just think it's a huge misunderstanding more to do with the problems between the countries than with us as individuals. >> you said you got the idea, wait a second. this is all political. >> yeah. unfortunately, it's true. you know, i wouldn't be sitting

here if there weren't countless people that believed in our innocence. i don't think there's a doubt in the world we didn't intend to go to iran. we would never risk our safety in that way and put our families through this. you know? >> president ahmadinejad is here this week and i know that you have wanted to try to get in touch with him. he was on with larry king on wednesday talking about whether or not sean and josh would get out. he said that's in the hands of the judge. i've made my appeal. do you think you will have a chance to meet with him? >> yeah, well, i don't see why he wouldn't want to meet with us. i have no animosity towards him or the government. i want it to be resolved an i want it to be finished. and i think that it would be a really good opportunity to, you know, push this forward for us to meet each other. >> what would you say to him? >> i don't know if it's going to happen. i would just ask him to release my fiancee and my friend for the

same reasons he released me. you know? as a humanitarian gesture. this is not politics and governments and we don't deserve to suffer any longer and neither do our families. >> what do you think about the idea he fought for a prisoner swap? would you support that? >> well, you know, i'm not a politician. honestly, this is not my area of expertise. i don't know how it should be resolved but it should be resolved and i want to continue to emphasize it's a humanitarian issue and i hope that it ends in a way that, you know, can move us forward. >> yeah. >> our country and iran and create a better relationship between us. >> you know, in reading your accounts it was amazing that there were these small and few and far between moments of you that happened while you were in the prison. one was that sean asked you to marry him there, right? >> yeah. >> i notice you have a thread on your hand. >> yeah. >> he made an engagement ring

for you. tell us about that. >> hold it up. we'll get a shot. >> oh, sure. yeah. sean's a romantic guy. it was just -- you know, we see each other an hour a day outside and josh stayed in the room so we could have sometime alone and sean said i have something to tell you. i said, i hope it's not bad because i'm having a really bad day and it was a beautiful moment. >> you were planning on asking him if he didn't ask you? >> uh-huh. i was going to wait until after prison. he beat me to it. i'm glad because he said we'll be able to really believe in our future together and sustain us. >> i know you'll work hard to win their release and we'll keep following the story to the end. great to see you this morning. >> like wise. >> best of luck. such a strong person to be going through this and we wish this ends as you said very quickly. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> we'll take a quick break. pass mass

note ♪ i say have a nice day welcome back.

the price of flat screen tvs, plunging. we were just talking about this. >> yeah. people who have televisions in every room in the house. >> unclooding every bathroom. we have one. now that they're on sale, maybe i'll go for two. expected to drop to levels 12% lower than 2009 before the year ends. inventories are bloated, more than usual they say and has analysts predicting black friday. >> so you know, we have about 60 flat screen tvs here in the studio with us. world's largest social networking site up and running again after crashing for two days. technical problems blamed for yesterday's facebook outage. on wednesday, company executives say a third party network provider caused another crash. oregon public broadcasting, the tongue firmly in cheek, with a breaking news yesterday saying worker productivity rises. u.s. climbs out of recession. late to class, you have to

fork over the lunch money. a high school in salt lake city is fining kids $5 for being late. they have the option, though, of serving 30 minutes detention if they don't want to pay or can't pay the fine. the school says the money goes toward paying the teacher to stay after school for the kids that close detention. with all the texting and tweeting going on, i guess we need a day like this. it's national punctuation day. who put a question mark in there? >> national punctuation day! >> the most common error is -- the misplaced or misused apostrop apostrophe. it's and its, two different forms get to us. please, if you're going to punk wait today, do it responsibly. >> before and after the quotes. >> dependent. >> part of the quote? >> or is it after the quote to finish the sentence?

i think we also need to have national spelling day because what drives me nuts, so many young people -- sorry. don't immediate to be your old uncle bill here. >> loose and lose. drives me crazy. >> lose l-o-o-s-e. it's got one "o." >> okay? don't forget that. you'll lose your mind. do you remember lay day ga-ga with the meat dress? >> how could you forget that? >> grossed people out. now it's beef jerky. repurposed. the designer of the meat dress that she wore to the vmas will put it through a process where it becomes jerky sort of and preserved so it won't look like you get a taste of it. gaga said it was in protest of the military policy of don't ask, don't tell saying equality is the prime rib of america. >> lovely fashion item. are you disgusted with the

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securing our nations clean energy future is all a question of how. and it is the how that will make all the difference. crossing the half hour now. top stories this friday morning. stuck in space a. russian capsule that was supposed to bring home three astronauts from the international space station got jammed up last night. they were sent back into the station after trying to get it loose for two hours.

they spelled loose correctly. glad to see that. engineers trying to figure out what went wrong and trying again tonight. and the search for a killer on this morning after a diplomat found dead in his new york apartment. throat slashed. this happening during world leaders meeting at the u.n. and assembly. iran's president mahmoud ahmadinejad wants the u.n. to investigate the 9/11 attacks claiming they were orchestrated by the united states. ahmadinejad delivered a fiery speech yesterday in front of the u.n. general assembly. didn't take long for u.s. and european delegates to say they have had enough and walk out after hearing this. >> translator: some segments within the u.s. government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining american economy and its grips on the

middle east in order to save the zionist regime. the majority of the american people as well as most nations and politicians around the world agree with this view. >> a white house spokesman said the president found the remarks quote out va you and offensive. time for the latest news of the best political team on tv. there's a new poll released that reveals who's most upset with washington. >> senior political editor mark preston back with us this hour live at the politics.com desk. good morning. >> good morning, john, kiran. so really, what fuels an anti-incumbent year? well, it comes down to one thing. it comes down to anger. look at the new associated press poll out showing 58% of the independents said the politics makes them angry. that number increases to 60% if

you're a republican. democrats, however, only 31% of them are angry. so what does this all mean for the midterm elections? angry voters usually turn out so heading into november, that probably spells good news for republicans. moving on, in less than an hour steven colbert will be on capitol hill testifying about the very authority issue of immigration. he worked as a farm worker for a day up in new york. take a look hat this void owe of abc's "good morning america." shows him getting down and dirty and colbert will be on capitol hill talking about immigration. will he be in character? probably telling a couple jokes and very serious issue. steven colbert addressing later in less than an hour. later this morning. closing with this. sarah palin, can we ever get enough of sarah palin? of course, she is the darling of the republican party. and now she is focusing on 20 democrats who voted for the health care bill.

these are democrats that when she was on the ticket in 2008, her and john mccain won these districts so sarah palin trying to play a big role in the elections and in fact on her website, she has the cross hairs to show she's closing in on them. trying to raise money and beat the democrats. >> she had a bearskin in the gubernatorial office and pretty good at aiming at things, i think. >> i think so. >> all right. thanks so much. a reminder for all of the latest political news, head to cnnpolitics.com. an unsolved medical mystery. the parents of a sick little girl. dr. sanjay gupta follows the disease detectives putting 6-year-old kylie under the microscope. see what they found coming up. it's a sale. nothing beats a sale! wrong move! you.

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38 minutes past the hour. we have a "a.m. house call" for you now. we told you about the story of kylie, she's a sick little girl whose illness is a medical mystery. such a torment to her family. he parents trying to find out what is wrong with her. her case so challenging she is accepted into a specialized program at national institute of health in maryland. >> the detectives are the last hope for patients like kylie. our dr. sanjay gupta joins us now to update us. yesterday, you showed us that they were subjecting her to literally every test known to medical science to try to figure out what's going on. when's the story today? >> lots of clinical exams and looking at things that are not obvious. i think is a good way to describe it. we're following this over a year now and kylie and the place, udp and as a doctor and reporter, it is fascinating. as a father, it is tough.

she's gone -- been getting sick and getting sicker and then she's gone through the grueling tests. it's a tough thing to watch but they do start to uncover a lot of clues and the big question, can they start to solve the puzzle? here's what we found. >> okay. >> reporter: shortly before her 4th birthday, the mystery began. >> i have to eat. i have to do shots. >> reporter: how serious is kylie? >> well, she's i would say real serious. i think that she has a disorder that will threaten her life is essentially the issue here. sort of racing against time. >> reporter: kylie has already been at the udp for a week. the doctor and team sifting through the data they have amassing on her. do you have a diagnose no ses? >> we don't, no. we have a few good leads. >> reporter: for a time, they suspected a rare brain disorder called epilepsy partialily and

the tests came back clues showed the electrical charges were not coming from just one area. but in fact, from all over. so, they were back to square one. >> well, you try to differentiate whether this is something that was genetic or something environmental. in other words, that happened to her. really, that's a dichotomy here. >> reporter: in time, an analysis of kylie's dna revealed a clue with a mutation in a particular gene that makes a protein. is it possible that what we're talking about here with regard to kylie is truly something that's never been described before? >> it's very possible. you know -- >> reporter: brand new? >> brand new mutation and maybe identifying a gene that is -- is not known previously to cause a human disease. >> reporter: back home in reno, nevada, gina and steven are trying to focus on enjoying the

time they have as a family. although ki lie is deteriorating, she's happy. >> maybe some day we'll get that phone call, hey, we think we might know what it is. >> reporter: in bethesda, maryland, the doctors at the program are digging deeper into that genetic clue. they're doing a dna analysis of kylie's parents and sisters. they know it is now a race. >> every new case that comes to us brings with it a human story. i think the important thing is for us as professionals to look at the successes that we have. and to try to not dwell on the failures that we have because we fail so often. >> i mean, it's hard to say when you're the parent, though, of the person suffering and kylie's case is heart breaking. how how long do doctors search for a diagnosis before they have

to tell you, sorry, we have to move on? >> kiran, there's no rules here. everything we're talking about and everything you have seen is unprecedented and no absolute timetable. they tell me sort of at the early stages. this mutation, what exactly is it? and i don't think i'm overstating it saying if they figure this out and causing problems with diabetes and the brain, this could be a new dad and maybe referred to as kylie disease because of what you have seen transpire and a process of months. forever? probably not. i think some point if they can't figure it out, we have to say they haven't done that but they realize this is a race against the clock, though. >> so her brain is just sort of short kir sitting? >> well, they don't know, john. i can tell you this. it affects the right side of the body. not the left side. goes away during sleep. some people suggested, is this the first child described to

have variant of huntington's disease, for example? something related to the motor areas of the brain in they looked. they haven't found that specifically and might be an autoimmune problem that doesn't show up on the standardized tests and they have the look for that. >> mystery to be sure. doc, great story this morning. thank you. >> thank you. >> keep us posted. >> i will. thank you. for more on the rare medical mysteries and the detectives trying to find the right diagnosis, tune in to "sanjay gupta md" saturday mornings here on cnn. there's a flooding warning in the midwest. could be a threat to the u.s. our rob marciano tracking it all and will join us in a moment.

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got flading in arcardia, wisconsin, yesterday. the river up and over the banks there. some areas of wisconsin under a flood warning through the weekend and this is -- this area evacuated yesterday. over 2,000 people fleeing from their homes. here's where the radar is right now. most of the rain moving east into chicago. i think the rain for the most part over across southern minnesota and wisconsin and counties still under flood warnings. the wisconsin river, which is expected to crest probably sunday afternoon could very well get close to the record amount of flooding back in 1993.

here's the tallies. eighth inches where you saw the pink. 150 miles or so south of minneapolis. that's where the heaviest rain was. south of minneapolis. and st. paul. all right. as far as the other big weather story, the heat. 96 in memphis yesterday. d.c. 93 degrees. a summer that goes beyond belief. another record-breaking day expected today. 97 expected high in d.c. and 85 in new york city. here's tropical storm matthew heading towards honduras and nicaragua. moving quickly westerly at 16 miles per hour. it will make landfall there as a strong tropical storm or even possibly a hurricane later on tonight. and then make a secondary landfall across belize late tomorrow night and then sometime next week either getting back into the northwestern caribbean or southern gulf of mexico and that is what has everybody that lives on the gulf coast of the united states nervous and

rightfully so. "american morning" is coming right back.

we have now nine minutes to

the top of the hour. back with the most news of the morning. all yearlong, remarkable, every day people changing the world. and the top ten finalists have been announced. >> that's right. now you can vote on cnn.com/heroes. actress ricki lake locks at the top ten cnn heroes, one in particular, susan burton. >> hi, i'm ricki lake. the last two years i have had the honor of helping to recognize the great works of every day people changing the world at cnn heroes and all-star tribute. as a supporter of 2008, top ten cnn hero and, i'm committing to building schools, providing education and preventing aids in malawi and thrilled to help cnn introduce one of this year's top ten honorees. now more than ever, the world needs heroes. >> we all leave prison saying i'm going to get my life on track. and you end up getting off of a

bus downtown los angeles, skid row. many times you don't even make it out of the skid row area before you're caught up into that cycle again. my name is susan burton. after my son died, i used drugs. i went to prison six times. finally, i found rehab. and i thought i can help women come home from prison. i pick them up, bring them back to the house. >> some jeans. >> she offer you a warm bed, food. like a real family. she made me want to change my life. >> probably whispering, sure. you came a long way. >> this is the life. that's what it's all about. >> just one of the many touching stories out there and the top ten finalists, as well f. you want to check out more about their stories, head to cnn.com/heroes. and you can vote.

you can actually vote for more than one. you can pick who inspires you the most. all ten honored on thanksgiving night. cnn heroes, all-star tribute hosted by anderson cooper. one named cnn's hero of the year. well, chicago rock band okay go for the mastery of viral videos done it again. this time, with a crew of trained shelter dogs. and believe it or not, it's all done in one take. jeanne moos shows us why it's got more than 2 million hits on youtube coming up. ♪ you're the one ♪ who's born to care this life was protected... ♪ seems you've always been right there ♪ this life was saved... ♪ soothing sadness ♪ healing pain and this life was made easier... ♪ making smiles appear again

because of this life. nursing. at johnson & johnson, we salute all those who choose the life... that makes a difference. ♪ you're a nurse ♪ you make a difference

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since they barked "jingle bells." >> starring in a new video that's exploding on the internet. okay. go? here's jeanne moos. >> reporter: who cares about sits and stays when your dog gets to play in a music video? the band is okay go. they go to the dogs in one continuous take with a dozen mostly shelter dogs in the video called "white nickknuckles." it took 124 takes though they found up using take 72. band says the dozen dogs loved it. >> you could see, like, yes, i've done my job and like it was so, so fun. >> reporter: okay go is known for its complex, one continuous take videos like the one with a contraption big enough to fill

an entire warehouse. but that was engineering. this required training each dog had its own trainer giving it cues. we were wondering, what had the dogs so focused? looking like they were at the u.s. open. tennis ball with cheese on it. the brown dog on the right -- >> that's my dog bunny. >> reporter: the choreography with everything from leaps to shelves. ♪ note the band member feeding riot the dog a treat. a couple walked the planks. how did tin-tin the chihuahua and the rest of the gang react to okay go's music? >> basically dancing to a click. >> it was like a metro gnome but with the vocals over it. >> reporter: took six weeks spread over a year to train the dogs, train the people and get one continuous great take.

did we mention ranger the goat? >> you don't probably train a goat. >> no. >> reporter: the video ends with a pyramid that the band called a dog-amid. that was the hardest part of commands up and down in unison. >> i think it was pure luck barking to the beat. >> reporter: but the band leader's favorite part is popcorn. ♪ let your hair down featuring spike, the latest canine pop star. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> can you imagine if we had to do this show in one take? oh, yeah. we do every day. >> sometimes we feel like a trained dog, don't we? i tell you, that's remarkable. >> i love it. i mean, you remember the first one that really got viral. the beginning of viral videos. >> treadmill. >> had to be way harder than that. >> we are not like trained dogs.